Reporter: Jane Hutcheon
Transcript
HUTCHEON: This year marks an anniversary, the 300-year-old union between England and Scotland. Scottish nationalists say the multi-billion dollar north sea oil industry based here in Aberdeen, will form the basis for an economy for a future independent Scotland – but can Scotland really go it alone or is a three hundred year old marriage on the rocks?
The Scottish village of Gretna Green, just across the border from England, has been celebrating weddings for more than two hundred years. It’s a legacy from the days when Scotland’s marriage age was 16 and England’s was 21, making this the elopement capital of the Union.
Now, the Union itself after three hundred years of marriage is under threat. Some in this country of five million want to break the ties that bind - others are clinging for dear life.
ALEX SALMOND: [Leader, Scottish National Party] I think independence as an idea, is this thing that’s spreading and nations should be independent and Scotland is a nation and Scotland should be independent. Yeah, I think our time has come.
WENDY ALEXANDER: [Scottish Labour MP] Around the world nations are drawing closer together and so would it make sense to say to the rest of the world after a few hundred years we can’t live together as one people on the same island?
HUTCHEON: If the opinion polls are to be believed, Scottish Nationals are set to end Labour’s fifty-year dominance in the North at next month’s regional elections and breaking away from Britain is part of the plan.
YOUNG FEMALE: It’s about independence. It’s about aspiration. It’s about everything that you can do for yourself and much, much more. Scotland’s a nation, an historic nation and we want to see it independent and fulfil all the ambitions that we have.
ADVERT: It’s time for a government with new ideas.
HUTCHEON: A growing number of famous Scots have thrown money and support behind independence.
SEAN CONNERY: [Independence campaigner] The SNP and its supporters are united and confident. It’s clearly a time for change. All of my life experience tells me that an independent Scotland will be successful.
HUTCHEON: The leader of the Scottish Nationals is Alex Salmond.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing crowd] My name is Alex Salmond and I’m running for First Minister. [Applause]
HUTCHEON: He’s a former oil economist, currently one of six Scottish Nationals in the British Parliament in Westminster and a thorn in Tony Blair’s side.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing crowd] You know delegates, every time Blair flies up to place his big carbon footprint in our country, SNP support soars. He’s on his way out. We’re on our way in. His time is over, our time is coming or to coin a phrase - he is the past, we are the future now.
HUTCHEON: The British Government, which may soon be headed by a Scot, warns that independence would lead to economic collapse. It says nationalists are gambling with Scotland’s future but the Nationals believe Scotland’s growing confidence, affluence and individuality can make independence possible once again.
Despite three hundred years of union, Scottish identity is as strong as ever. Nothing symbolises this more than Burns’ Night. Celebrated every year with plenty of poetry, whiskey and haggis, Burns’ Night marks the birthday more than two hundred and fifty years ago of Scotland’s most famous poet and patriot, Robert Burns.
Robert Burns’ poetry embodies much of what’s typically Scottish – a quick wit, passion and patriotism. Burns was agonised by the loss of Scotland’s independence. Centuries after Robert Burns’ death, that same debate has returned with a vengeance.
The debate over Scotland’s future is currently playing to packed audiences. At Edinburgh University, they’ve come to hear Professor Tom Devine, one of Scotland’s most acclaimed historians.
Since the act of union was signed he says, England and Scotland have been bound together by mutual interests such as the monarchy, defence and religion. Times however, have changed.
PROFESSOR TOM DEVINE: What’s happened really is that almost all the great historical foundations of the union have been stripped away. The Empire is gone. Another factor, which cemented attitudes in the Union, was the joint Protestantism of England and Scotland against the French and Spanish enemies – so all of these, all of these basic foundations of Union have disintegrated and therefore it’s not surprising that the future of the Union is on the agenda.
HUTCHEON: Poles say 35% of Scots support independence but that could rise because of growing disillusionment with Tony Blair’s Labour leadership.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: [May 12, 1999] The Scottish Parliament adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707 is hereby reconvened.
HUTCHEON: Eight years ago a devolved Scottish Parliament was approved, allowing Scots to manage local health, criminal justice and education.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing Scottish Parliament] Our primary loyalty is with the people of Scotland, in line with the Scottish constitutional tradition of the sovereignty of the people.
HUTCHEON: The Blair Government thought this would silence those calling for a greater hand in Scotland’s governance. Instead, many Scots want more.
ALEX SALMOND: The world is moving to favour small independent countries in large trading blocks. These are the most successful countries in the world like Ireland, like Iceland, like Norway and they are because they benefit from social cohesion, the ability to make rapid decisions – particularly on the economy – and they have access to the world and international marketplace just as much as any big country does.
HUTCHEON: The northeast city of Aberdeen was once a big fishing port. Stuart Devine remembers trawlers once filled the harbour, but then a new industry took over. Off Aberdeen’s coast, oil was discovered in the North Sea.
STUART DEVINE: Over the years it’s changed Aberdeen forever and all for the good. I would say the benefits that have come from oil have just been absolutely fantastic for the city you know?
HUTCHEON: Experts say half the vast oil reserves have already been extracted but Scottish nationalists want the remaining billions flowing from the oilfields to benefit a future independent Scotland and they don’t plan to wait for independence.
ALEX SALMOND: Even before independence I think Westminster should consider setting up an oil fund in Scotland so that we can get at least a fraction of the benefits that other countries have had from their resources. It’s a no-brainer. I mean oil is going to be worth more in price terms over the next forty years than it’s been over the last forty years so in terms of the value, the economic rent, we’re not even halfway through.
HUTCHEON: The energy boom hasn’t just made the multi-national oil companies wealthy, Stuart Devine co-owns a thriving fish and chip restaurant which caters to thousands of customers a week. From a single restaurant 20 years ago, there are now fourteen in the chain. Growth, thanks to oil, yet Stuart Devine says you can’t build a future on it.
STUART DEVINE: [Businessman] You know I think that a lot of nationalism has really been backed up by the fact this is our oil, you know and that’s a dangerous road to go along cause as I say the oil won't last forever. So that’s okay, so you choose independence, you choose independence because you thought we can do it with oil. What are you going to do when oil’s not here?
HUTCHEON: The founder of Scotland’s newest political party also voices caution at jumping on the nationalist bandwagon. Archie Stirling is a laird, a Scottish landlord who can trace his ancestry back seven hundred years.
ARCHIE STIRLING: [Founder, Scottish Voice Party] I believe the thing that matters most is what affects Scotland, it’s Scottish interests that matter. The Union has served Scotland very well and it has served Scotland well to this day. I’m not frightened of Scotland being independent, but I think we should think long and hard before we change something that’s working.
HUTCHEON: The Laird of Kier as Archie Stirling is known, is a political novice with a reputation as a playboy but one of his major concerns is a growing divide between rich and poor.
ARCHIE STIRLING: We have a prosperous side to us and we have a deprived side to us.
HUTCHEON: Do you know what people feel outside the Estate?
ARCHIE STIRLING: Yes I certainly do. Yes I talk to people all over, all over Scotland and I think people are dissatisfied with the standard of, they don’t feel represented by the politicians.
HUTCHEON: And while overall Scotland is more affluent than it’s ever been, wealth hasn’t been spread evenly. There is another side to Scotland one where poverty, deprivation and poor health make the headlines. A recent survey said one in five Scots live in poverty and those poor communities are not so far from some of the richest cities.
This is the working class town of Linwood, near Glasgow Airport. Forty years ago, it was home to 6,000 workers and a state-of-the-art car factory, producing an iconic British family car called the Imp.
ARCHIVE TAPE: And on the appointed day, his Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, visits Linwood to mark the official opening of a great industrial project.
HUTCHEON: Linwood thrived as long as the factory did but production never exceeded its targets and by the early 80s, after changing hands and losing millions, the factory closed.
At the local club, former car workers enjoy a weekly get together. After being laid-off, many never worked again. Sam Nichol did find work elsewhere after 19 years at the factory.
SAM NICHOL: Everybody was employed at that time so this club was really booming at that time as well.
HUTCHEON: After the factory closed, Norrie Campbell found work as a bartender. These photographs from the 70s show him on a football outing with fellow workers.
NORRIE CAMPBELL: Where can we get a job for a young kid who wants to be an engineer or something like that? There’s nothing… nothing.
HUTCHEON: The factory was pulled down years ago but downtown Linwood remains a shadow of its former self. These days it resembles a war zone, hence its nick-name ‘Basra’.
IAN WILSON: It has been dying since the car plant closed and the whole thing’s coming down.
HUTCHEON: Long time resident Ian Wilson explains that the local MP has just invited Britain’s biggest supermarket chain to buy up and redevelop the town centre. He hopes his crumbling Linwood will soon turn over a new leaf.
How does this make you feel?
IAN WILSON: [Linwood resident] It makes me feel terrible. I’m not ashamed to live in Linwood but this is not doing Linwood’s reputation any good at all.
HUTCHEON: Linwood is a Labour stronghold and the local MP, Wendy Alexander, believes Scotland has greatly benefited from the Union.
WENDY ALEXANDER: If you want to spend the money on separation setting up embassies in Australia for example, or your own army and navy that’s fine, but the consequence of that is that we’re not actually investing in education and the challenge in Scotland is no different from across the globe as to how do you meet the challenge of globalisation – the Indias and the Chinas.
HUTCHEON: The National Party says if Scotland controlled its economy affluence would be more evenly distributed.
ALEX SALMOND: We’ve got poverty amid plenty in Scotland. I just find it so extraordinary that you know pompous twats like Prime Minister Blair can seriously, and their condescending, patronising attitude, come up and tell a country like Scotland, which has contributed so much to the wider world, that somehow we can’t govern our own affairs.
HUTCHEON: But in Linwood, Ian Wilson isn’t convinced by any political arguments.
IAN WILSON: I don’t think the bulk of the population care whether it’s independent or not. I think the bulk of the population would like to see the problem solved – the deprivation got rid of, the poverty got rid of, good housing for everybody – that’s what the people they want rather than independence.
HUTCHEON: So you can’t see any party that will bring about that kind of change?
IAN WILSON: No, I can’t.
HUTCHEON: When Scottish landlords signed away their nation’s independence 300 years ago, it took decades for Scots to feel they reaped the benefits. While Scotland has come of age, a growing number of people are disillusioned by Westminster but it may take a lot of convincing on both sides of the border to let the Scots run free.
Transcript
HUTCHEON: This year marks an anniversary, the 300-year-old union between England and Scotland. Scottish nationalists say the multi-billion dollar north sea oil industry based here in Aberdeen, will form the basis for an economy for a future independent Scotland – but can Scotland really go it alone or is a three hundred year old marriage on the rocks?
The Scottish village of Gretna Green, just across the border from England, has been celebrating weddings for more than two hundred years. It’s a legacy from the days when Scotland’s marriage age was 16 and England’s was 21, making this the elopement capital of the Union.
Now, the Union itself after three hundred years of marriage is under threat. Some in this country of five million want to break the ties that bind - others are clinging for dear life.
ALEX SALMOND: [Leader, Scottish National Party] I think independence as an idea, is this thing that’s spreading and nations should be independent and Scotland is a nation and Scotland should be independent. Yeah, I think our time has come.
WENDY ALEXANDER: [Scottish Labour MP] Around the world nations are drawing closer together and so would it make sense to say to the rest of the world after a few hundred years we can’t live together as one people on the same island?
HUTCHEON: If the opinion polls are to be believed, Scottish Nationals are set to end Labour’s fifty-year dominance in the North at next month’s regional elections and breaking away from Britain is part of the plan.
YOUNG FEMALE: It’s about independence. It’s about aspiration. It’s about everything that you can do for yourself and much, much more. Scotland’s a nation, an historic nation and we want to see it independent and fulfil all the ambitions that we have.
ADVERT: It’s time for a government with new ideas.
HUTCHEON: A growing number of famous Scots have thrown money and support behind independence.
SEAN CONNERY: [Independence campaigner] The SNP and its supporters are united and confident. It’s clearly a time for change. All of my life experience tells me that an independent Scotland will be successful.
HUTCHEON: The leader of the Scottish Nationals is Alex Salmond.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing crowd] My name is Alex Salmond and I’m running for First Minister. [Applause]
HUTCHEON: He’s a former oil economist, currently one of six Scottish Nationals in the British Parliament in Westminster and a thorn in Tony Blair’s side.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing crowd] You know delegates, every time Blair flies up to place his big carbon footprint in our country, SNP support soars. He’s on his way out. We’re on our way in. His time is over, our time is coming or to coin a phrase - he is the past, we are the future now.
HUTCHEON: The British Government, which may soon be headed by a Scot, warns that independence would lead to economic collapse. It says nationalists are gambling with Scotland’s future but the Nationals believe Scotland’s growing confidence, affluence and individuality can make independence possible once again.
Despite three hundred years of union, Scottish identity is as strong as ever. Nothing symbolises this more than Burns’ Night. Celebrated every year with plenty of poetry, whiskey and haggis, Burns’ Night marks the birthday more than two hundred and fifty years ago of Scotland’s most famous poet and patriot, Robert Burns.
Robert Burns’ poetry embodies much of what’s typically Scottish – a quick wit, passion and patriotism. Burns was agonised by the loss of Scotland’s independence. Centuries after Robert Burns’ death, that same debate has returned with a vengeance.
The debate over Scotland’s future is currently playing to packed audiences. At Edinburgh University, they’ve come to hear Professor Tom Devine, one of Scotland’s most acclaimed historians.
Since the act of union was signed he says, England and Scotland have been bound together by mutual interests such as the monarchy, defence and religion. Times however, have changed.
PROFESSOR TOM DEVINE: What’s happened really is that almost all the great historical foundations of the union have been stripped away. The Empire is gone. Another factor, which cemented attitudes in the Union, was the joint Protestantism of England and Scotland against the French and Spanish enemies – so all of these, all of these basic foundations of Union have disintegrated and therefore it’s not surprising that the future of the Union is on the agenda.
HUTCHEON: Poles say 35% of Scots support independence but that could rise because of growing disillusionment with Tony Blair’s Labour leadership.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: [May 12, 1999] The Scottish Parliament adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707 is hereby reconvened.
HUTCHEON: Eight years ago a devolved Scottish Parliament was approved, allowing Scots to manage local health, criminal justice and education.
ALEX SALMOND: [Addressing Scottish Parliament] Our primary loyalty is with the people of Scotland, in line with the Scottish constitutional tradition of the sovereignty of the people.
HUTCHEON: The Blair Government thought this would silence those calling for a greater hand in Scotland’s governance. Instead, many Scots want more.
ALEX SALMOND: The world is moving to favour small independent countries in large trading blocks. These are the most successful countries in the world like Ireland, like Iceland, like Norway and they are because they benefit from social cohesion, the ability to make rapid decisions – particularly on the economy – and they have access to the world and international marketplace just as much as any big country does.
HUTCHEON: The northeast city of Aberdeen was once a big fishing port. Stuart Devine remembers trawlers once filled the harbour, but then a new industry took over. Off Aberdeen’s coast, oil was discovered in the North Sea.
STUART DEVINE: Over the years it’s changed Aberdeen forever and all for the good. I would say the benefits that have come from oil have just been absolutely fantastic for the city you know?
HUTCHEON: Experts say half the vast oil reserves have already been extracted but Scottish nationalists want the remaining billions flowing from the oilfields to benefit a future independent Scotland and they don’t plan to wait for independence.
ALEX SALMOND: Even before independence I think Westminster should consider setting up an oil fund in Scotland so that we can get at least a fraction of the benefits that other countries have had from their resources. It’s a no-brainer. I mean oil is going to be worth more in price terms over the next forty years than it’s been over the last forty years so in terms of the value, the economic rent, we’re not even halfway through.
HUTCHEON: The energy boom hasn’t just made the multi-national oil companies wealthy, Stuart Devine co-owns a thriving fish and chip restaurant which caters to thousands of customers a week. From a single restaurant 20 years ago, there are now fourteen in the chain. Growth, thanks to oil, yet Stuart Devine says you can’t build a future on it.
STUART DEVINE: [Businessman] You know I think that a lot of nationalism has really been backed up by the fact this is our oil, you know and that’s a dangerous road to go along cause as I say the oil won't last forever. So that’s okay, so you choose independence, you choose independence because you thought we can do it with oil. What are you going to do when oil’s not here?
HUTCHEON: The founder of Scotland’s newest political party also voices caution at jumping on the nationalist bandwagon. Archie Stirling is a laird, a Scottish landlord who can trace his ancestry back seven hundred years.
ARCHIE STIRLING: [Founder, Scottish Voice Party] I believe the thing that matters most is what affects Scotland, it’s Scottish interests that matter. The Union has served Scotland very well and it has served Scotland well to this day. I’m not frightened of Scotland being independent, but I think we should think long and hard before we change something that’s working.
HUTCHEON: The Laird of Kier as Archie Stirling is known, is a political novice with a reputation as a playboy but one of his major concerns is a growing divide between rich and poor.
ARCHIE STIRLING: We have a prosperous side to us and we have a deprived side to us.
HUTCHEON: Do you know what people feel outside the Estate?
ARCHIE STIRLING: Yes I certainly do. Yes I talk to people all over, all over Scotland and I think people are dissatisfied with the standard of, they don’t feel represented by the politicians.
HUTCHEON: And while overall Scotland is more affluent than it’s ever been, wealth hasn’t been spread evenly. There is another side to Scotland one where poverty, deprivation and poor health make the headlines. A recent survey said one in five Scots live in poverty and those poor communities are not so far from some of the richest cities.
This is the working class town of Linwood, near Glasgow Airport. Forty years ago, it was home to 6,000 workers and a state-of-the-art car factory, producing an iconic British family car called the Imp.
ARCHIVE TAPE: And on the appointed day, his Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, visits Linwood to mark the official opening of a great industrial project.
HUTCHEON: Linwood thrived as long as the factory did but production never exceeded its targets and by the early 80s, after changing hands and losing millions, the factory closed.
At the local club, former car workers enjoy a weekly get together. After being laid-off, many never worked again. Sam Nichol did find work elsewhere after 19 years at the factory.
SAM NICHOL: Everybody was employed at that time so this club was really booming at that time as well.
HUTCHEON: After the factory closed, Norrie Campbell found work as a bartender. These photographs from the 70s show him on a football outing with fellow workers.
NORRIE CAMPBELL: Where can we get a job for a young kid who wants to be an engineer or something like that? There’s nothing… nothing.
HUTCHEON: The factory was pulled down years ago but downtown Linwood remains a shadow of its former self. These days it resembles a war zone, hence its nick-name ‘Basra’.
IAN WILSON: It has been dying since the car plant closed and the whole thing’s coming down.
HUTCHEON: Long time resident Ian Wilson explains that the local MP has just invited Britain’s biggest supermarket chain to buy up and redevelop the town centre. He hopes his crumbling Linwood will soon turn over a new leaf.
How does this make you feel?
IAN WILSON: [Linwood resident] It makes me feel terrible. I’m not ashamed to live in Linwood but this is not doing Linwood’s reputation any good at all.
HUTCHEON: Linwood is a Labour stronghold and the local MP, Wendy Alexander, believes Scotland has greatly benefited from the Union.
WENDY ALEXANDER: If you want to spend the money on separation setting up embassies in Australia for example, or your own army and navy that’s fine, but the consequence of that is that we’re not actually investing in education and the challenge in Scotland is no different from across the globe as to how do you meet the challenge of globalisation – the Indias and the Chinas.
HUTCHEON: The National Party says if Scotland controlled its economy affluence would be more evenly distributed.
ALEX SALMOND: We’ve got poverty amid plenty in Scotland. I just find it so extraordinary that you know pompous twats like Prime Minister Blair can seriously, and their condescending, patronising attitude, come up and tell a country like Scotland, which has contributed so much to the wider world, that somehow we can’t govern our own affairs.
HUTCHEON: But in Linwood, Ian Wilson isn’t convinced by any political arguments.
IAN WILSON: I don’t think the bulk of the population care whether it’s independent or not. I think the bulk of the population would like to see the problem solved – the deprivation got rid of, the poverty got rid of, good housing for everybody – that’s what the people they want rather than independence.
HUTCHEON: So you can’t see any party that will bring about that kind of change?
IAN WILSON: No, I can’t.
HUTCHEON: When Scottish landlords signed away their nation’s independence 300 years ago, it took decades for Scots to feel they reaped the benefits. While Scotland has come of age, a growing number of people are disillusioned by Westminster but it may take a lot of convincing on both sides of the border to let the Scots run free.